Exhortation gleaned from ‘Found Faithful’

A couple of days ago, I was looking for a few good biographies and came across ‘Found Faithful‘ by Elizabeth Skoglund. I remembered her name because a few years ago I read her book entitled ‘Bright Days, Dark Nights: With Charles Spurgeon in Triumph over Emotional Pain‘. Skoglund is a family counselor, so her work with psychology is evident, but she does not compromise Christian doctrine for the sake of psychology.

(FYI: the book discusses the life and work of F. B. Meyer, Amy Carmichael, Charles Spurgeon, Hudson Taylor, Geraldine Taylor, Isobel Kuhn, C. S. Lewis, and Ruth Bell Graham.)

Here are some treasures I’ve read from the introductory chapters thus far:

F. B. Meyer: “Selfishness, of every kind, in its activities, or its introspection, is a hurtful thing, and shuts out the help and love of God….The soul, occupied with its own griefs, and refusing to be comforted, becomes presently a Dead Sea, full of brine and salt, over which birds do not fly, and beside which no green thing grows. And thus we miss the very lesson God would teach us, His constant war is against the self-life, and every pain He inflicts is to lessen its hold on us.”

Andrew Murray:”First, He brought me here, it is by His will I am in this strait place: in that fact I will rest. Next, He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace to behave as His child. Then, He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow. Last, in His good time He can bring me out again– how and when He knows. Let me say I am here, By God’s appointment, In His keeping, Under His training, For His time.”

Hudson Taylor:”God’s work done in God’s way will receive God’s supply.”

Elizabeth Skoglund:”God was not asking me to feel patience, love, or forgiveness. He was asking me to act. I was to appropriate His love and then act in love. The feelings would follow later…”

Hudson Taylor:” All my life has been so fickle. Sometimes I could trust, sometimes I could not, but when I could not turst then I reckoned that God would be faithful.”